Elon Musk: Officially a fraud and piece of shit. Official or unofficial war criminal?

[Lurch 5950]

[Clintonaldo 2618]

Remember when his CEO lied and said all of the advertisers were back? This won’t help. 

[956 Worldwide 35594]

 

[NoName 17148]

WSJ: Elon Musk Borrowed $1 Billion From SpaceX in Same Month of Twitter Acquisition

https://archive.ph/hZxv1#selection-156.0-156.1

Quote

The unusual loan is the latest example of how the world’s richest man has drummed up cash from his empire of companies without having to permanently part with shares, enabling him to raise funds for his wide array of endeavors.

SpaceX approved the loan, which was backed by some of his SpaceX stock, in October, and Musk drew all of it down the same month, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
It couldn’t be determined why he took on the debt. He paid the loan back shortly after he borrowed the money, returning $1 billion with interest to SpaceX in November. Musk and SpaceX didn’t respond to requests for comment.

how is loaning any 1 person like 20% of your cash on hand something that can happen in any business? like how in the hell is that reasonable. add in that it's your CEO and it sure looks fishy as hell.

Quote

The $1 billion loan temporarily shifted a significant chunk of capital for SpaceX, which is intertwined with many of the most important space missions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Pentagon, to its top leader. SpaceX had $4.7 billion in cash and securities on hand at the end of last year, the documents showed. The loan represented 11% of the $9 billion in equity the company reported selling since 2009, according to regulatory filings.

 

full text:

 

Spoiler

Elon Musk Borrowed $1 Billion From SpaceX in Same Month of Twitter Acquisition

Rocket maker has lent the executive money on several occasions over the past few years

Elon Musk has had much of his wealth tied up in shares in Tesla, SpaceX and other startups.

Photo: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg News

By

Micah Maidenberg and

Tim Higgins

Sept. 5, 2023 9:00 pm ET

 

Elon Musk tapped SpaceX, the rocket maker he oversees as chief executive, for a $1 billion loan around the time he was acquiring the social-media company formerly known as Twitter. 

The unusual loan is the latest example of how the world’s richest man has drummed up cash from his empire of companies without having to permanently part with shares, enabling him to raise funds for his wide array of endeavors.

SpaceX approved the loan, which was backed by some of his SpaceX stock, in October, and Musk drew all of it down the same month, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

It couldn’t be determined why he took on the debt. He paid the loan back shortly after he borrowed the money, returning $1 billion with interest to SpaceX in November. Musk and SpaceX didn’t respond to requests for comment.

For years, Musk has had arrangements with banks to borrow against his shares in his companies, including Tesla, the electric-car maker where he is CEO. At privately held SpaceX, the company itself has served as his lender.

 

In late July, Elon Musk shifted Twitter’s name to X, a change for the brand. But it isn’t the first time the tech billionaire has used the URL x.com. WSJ explains what the site’s past could signal about its future.

Musk is by far SpaceX’s largest shareholder, controlling a 42% stake and almost 79% of its voting power as of March, according to a SpaceX filing with the Federal Communications Commission. If he wants to take out a loan from SpaceX, he almost certainly can.

The borrowing last year occurred as SpaceX made big investments in its Starship rocket program and in Starlink, a satellite-internet business. The company has raised large sums from investors to help pay for both, and Musk has urged employees to mind their spending. In late 2021, he warned that SpaceX could face bankruptcy as it plowed cash into the huge rocket and Starlink.

The $1 billion loan temporarily shifted a significant chunk of capital for SpaceX, which is intertwined with many of the most important space missions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Pentagon, to its top leader. SpaceX had $4.7 billion in cash and securities on hand at the end of last year, the documents showed. The loan represented 11% of the $9 billion in equity the company reported selling since 2009, according to regulatory filings.

In November, when Musk paid back the money, he also sold almost $4 billion worth of Tesla stock, and he sold a similar amount the following month, bringing the total amount of the automaker’s stock he sold over a stretch of more than a year to around $39 billion. 

Musk has said he would be paying more than $11 billion in taxes for 2021 and he put up roughly $25 billion in cash as part of his $44 billion deal to acquire Twitter, now known as X, in late October. 

From the early days of SpaceX, Musk has turned to the company to help back up his other ventures. Musk has said he borrowed $20 million from SpaceX years ago to help a then-struggling Tesla, which narrowly averted collapse in late 2008. 

SpaceX tried to help a different Musk company during a period of financial difficulty: SolarCity. In 2015 and 2016, SpaceX invested $330 million in bonds issued by the solar company where Musk was chairman and the largest shareholder. The company later was acquired by Tesla. 

A couple of years later, some SpaceX investors questioned why the rocket maker was diverting resources to another Musk enterprise, the Boring Co., which was experimenting with tunneling at the rocket maker’s complex. SpaceX later said Boring compensated it with some equity in the startup. Musk didn’t comment on the matter. 

Tesla didn’t become consistently profitable until the second half of 2019. The success was further rewarded by Wall Street, fueling the company’s already high market value.

Still, for many years, Musk has been a cash-poor billionaire with much of his wealth tied up in shares in Tesla, SpaceX and other startups. His liquidity isn’t known. 

As of December 2020, he had accumulated loans from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, totaling more than $500 million tied to his Tesla shares, according to a filing disclosing his relationships with the automaker’s lenders. The current status of those loans couldn’t be learned.

The mixing of Musk’s personal and business activities dates back to the early days of the companies, when he was writing checks from his own account to cover bills to help a then-struggling Tesla. 

More recently, activities at Tesla have drawn scrutiny, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Securities and Exchange Commission opening investigations into its use of company funds for a project that had been described internally as a house for Musk, the Journal has reported. 

The documents viewed by the Journal show that SpaceX has a loan agreement with Musk that has been modified over the years. 

In early 2017, SpaceX struck an agreement with Musk that permitted him to borrow up to $120 million from the company, with principal and interest due either a decade later or 90 days after a demand from SpaceX. Musk tapped into that deal about a year later, when he took out $100 million, according to the documents.

The total amount SpaceX could lend him was increased in May 2019, and Musk borrowed another $100 million the same month. A similar scenario played out the following year: The lending capacity was boosted in December 2020 to a maximum of $500 million, and Musk took out another $300 million.

In 2021, Musk began unlocking some of his paper wealth at Tesla. At the end of that year, he repaid SpaceX the $500 million in borrowing plus interest. 

Last fall, SpaceX boosted borrowing capacity to as much as $1 billion, permitting Musk to take out the loan of that size.

At the beginning of last year, with Tesla flourishing, Musk began making moves toward a new venture: Twitter. 

An early plan called for Musk to borrow $12.5 billion through loans backed by Tesla shares he owned that at the time were valued at more than $62.5 billion, and represented about 40% of his stake. 

The idea worried some investors. Tesla’s board and several banks had put in place rules that required him to put up more collateral were Tesla’s share price to fall. And it was falling in those days, meaning more shares were needed as collateral. Ultimately, he abandoned using Tesla shares as collateral to buy Twitter.

In April 2023, Tesla disclosed that it had further tightened rules around Musk’s using his stake in the car company to borrow money.

Paying for the late October acquisition of Twitter further complicated Musk’s financial situation.

The social-media company traditionally generated most of its revenue by selling ads, but saw a pullback from advertisers worried in part about the drama around Musk’s takeover. Musk said he was forced to cut spending at the social-media company to avoid bankruptcy. 

The situation at Twitter, along with increased competition and rising interest rates, weighed on Tesla shares last year, when the stock fell 65%. Tesla’s share-price decline complicated Musk’s ability to use stock in the electric-vehicle company to raise money. 

 

[Captain Ron 13133]

Vox media decided to go in on Musk this go around on their Podcast Land of the Giants. It's a podcast that focuses on how Big Tech affects our lives and the world. Past targets have been Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. This season they are doing one specifically on Tesla, though as Episode 2 notes, Tesla is the Elon Musk Company, focusing on how Elon DIDN'T found Tesla, how he ousted the founders using friends and family, and how he borrowed half a billion from the government to keep Tesla alive. I'm only 2 episodes in, but it's really good.

 

Trailer:

 

https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/land-of-the-giants 

[trza-hawk 269]

One of the biggest winners in the "new" twitter of the past year or so is an account named Dom Lucre, who seems to have zero original content and curates photos and edited videos from other sources. His followers and view counts have gone straight up for a while ow, regularly getting millions of views

 

 

[wildcat09 29579]

You mean to tell me Elon likes to promote the people who peddle child sexual abuse material? I'm shocked.

[atomheartbevo 90650]

This has been known for years, but bubbled back up - one of the Tesla super charging stations is run, in part, off of big diesel generators

https://www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/tesla-interstate-5-supercharger-power-plant-18343119.php

Quote

The Harris Ranch Tesla Supercharger has a couple of things going for it that have made it a part of Tesla enthusiasts’ lore: It’s one of the electric car giant’s first Supercharger stations, and with 98 charging bays, it’s also the biggest in the world.  The Central California charging station is such a big deal that Tesla clubs even make it an appointment destination. Yes, they’ll rally-style drive to it just to honor its lineage and size.  
 
But as with many Tesla-related things, there is a secret, thinly obscured by an Oz-like curtain, at the Harris Ranch Supercharger. Hidden in plain sight across the way from the Harris Ranch Supercharger’s main stations, behind a Shell station, is a small diesel plant that has helped power Tesla’s footprint.  

 

[Clintonaldo 2618]

The government should give him more money. 

[Brisketexan 106900]

The government should give him more money. 

….Which is actually exactly what the libertarian/“free speech absolutist”/Elon fanbois would/will say.

[Clintonaldo 2618]

….Which is actually exactly what the libertarian/“free speech absolutist”/Elon fanbois would/will say.

I’m tired of Muh Black Lives Matter and Gubmit handouts. Elon don’t need it so let’s give it to him !!

[Francisco 2.0 32595]

 

9 hours ago, Clintonaldo said:

The government should give him more money. 

 

9 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

….Which is actually exactly what the libertarian/“free speech absolutist”/Elon fanbois would/will say.

 

9 hours ago, Clintonaldo said:

I’m tired of Muh Black Lives Matter and Gubmit handouts. Elon don’t need it so let’s give it to him !!

 

Or, hear me out.  It's so crazy, it just might work.  There's no precedent for this, but I believe this is the way to go.

Elon should just start sending out mass emails asking for donations to fight off the government or something, for freedom or whatever.  He already has all of the people on Twitter's email addresses---he has a built in solicitation list, ready to go! He could say the government is against him! Just make up some reason; it doesn't have to actually exist. Oh, of course he could easily pay for the upgrades to his diesel powered charging station, but still it's better to use someone else's money rather than his own.  

He will rake in millions.  After all, he may be the wealthiest* person in the world, but his faithful followers will gladly be happy to send cash his way.  And he can do something more outrageous next week, like put up a video of him kicking a puppy or somesuch, and even more money would roll in.   

This will work.  

 

Edited September 7, 2023 by Francisco 2.0

[Captainant 28539]

10 hours ago, Clintonaldo said:

The government should give him more money. 

 

10 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

….Which is actually exactly what the libertarian/“free speech absolutist”/Elon fanbois would/will say.

 

10 hours ago, Clintonaldo said:

I’m tired of Muh Black Lives Matter and Gubmit handouts. Elon don’t need it so let’s give it to him !!

Well it makes about as much sense as paying Bitcoin miners to not mine during peak electricity demands in the state. So fuck it! Why not? That poor billionaire can't trickle down if he's dry!

[956 Worldwide 35594]

This motherfucker jumped in to turn off a Ukrainian naval attack after talking to Russians. I really don’t have issue if he turns up with Novichok in his drawers.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/07/politics/elon-musk-biography-walter-isaacson-ukraine-starlink/index.html

 

Quote

CNN — 

Elon Musk secretly ordered his engineers to turn off his company’s Starlink satellite communications network near the Crimean coast last year to disrupt a Ukrainian sneak attack on the Russian naval fleet, according to an excerpt adapted from Walter Isaacson’s new biography of the eccentric billionaire titled “Elon Musk.” 

As Ukrainian submarine drones strapped with explosives approached the Russian fleet, they “lost connectivity and washed ashore harmlessly,” Isaacson writes.

 

 

[atomheartbevo 90650]

Starlink is SpaceX.  If he’s fucking with other countries’ national security, he will fuck with our national security.  There needs to be repercussions.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13731]

No one should rely on Elon for anything. He might turn off the services for any reason. Odds are he won’t turn off your Tesla because he doesn’t like what you said online but the possibility is non zero.

[Brisketexan 106900]

No one should rely on Elon for anything. He might turn off the services for any reason. Odds are he won’t turn off your Tesla because he doesn’t like what you said online but the possibility is non zero.

….and when he does pitch a fit and turn off your device/services…he’ll blame the Jews.

[Francisco 2.0 32595]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/musks-unpaid-bills-dozens-of-lawsuits-try-to-force-twitter-aka-x-to-pay-up/

 

Quote

When Elon Musk bought Twitter in October 2022, a fairly ordinary tech company was transformed into a most unusual private corporation. Many strange things have happened at the Musk-owned social network, but this article will focus on just one puzzling aspect of Musk's leadership: His apparent refusal to pay bills.

Over two dozen lawsuits alleged that Twitter—which rebranded itself as "X" in late July—refused to pay money owed to vendors who started providing services to the company before Musk bought it. In fact, suing X seems to be the most effective method of collecting on unpaid invoices. This article will provide a summary of each lawsuit and an update on each case's status.

 

Quote

X agreed to settle some of the allegations, allowing some vendors to recoup at least part of what they were owed. Settlement talks are proceeding in other cases, and at least one went to arbitration. But X has taken a hard stance in fighting some unpaid-bill lawsuits, and several could head to jury trials.

Unpaid bills for work that has already been completed isn't the only problem. In some lawsuits, vendors that signed deals with the pre-Musk Twitter say they have contracts to keep providing services and that Musk won't honor the ongoing deals. X has also been sued for unpaid rent by landlords that own buildings where it has headquarters and other offices.

 

Quote

The unpaid-bill lawsuits began just weeks after Musk bought Twitter and new unpaid-bill suits were filed by different plaintiffs every month from December to June. Another lawsuit filed by former employees who are seeking unpaid severance provides some insight into how Musk's leadership team allegedly views paying bills for services and rent as optional.

"Led by Musk and the cadres of sycophants who were internally referred to as the 'transition team,' Twitter's new leadership deliberately, specifically, and repeatedly announced their intentions to breach contracts, violate laws, and otherwise ignore their legal obligations," claimed the lawsuit filed in May 2023 by six former employees.

"Elon doesn't pay rent," one member of Musk's transition team allegedly told Tracy Hawkins, one of the plaintiffs in the severance case. Another member of the transition team allegedly told ex-employee and plaintiff Joseph Killian that "Elon told me he would only pay rent over his dead body."

X did not respond to a request for comment.

 

Spoiler

Musk: “Let them sue”

We're using the names "X" and "Twitter" somewhat interchangeably in this article. While Musk wants everyone to call it X, the lawsuits were filed before the name change, and this article describes various events that happened either before Musk bought Twitter or before Musk changed the company name.

When asked if Musk is betting that fighting lawsuits will be cheaper than paying bills, attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan told Ars that "it's not really clear what Musk is thinking. He seems to think he's above the law and he can just do whatever he wants. He probably thought that not many people would actually challenge him on what he's doing."

Liss-Riordan isn't involved in the severance lawsuit noted above but has several pending cases against X. She is representing six companies—so far—in a class-action lawsuit alleging that it refused to pay bills. The class-action complaint in US District Court for the Northern District of California points to a Business Insider report that said, "in response to concerns about not paying vendors who provided services to or performed work for Twitter, Musk told Twitter employees, repeatedly, to 'let them sue.'"

A Financial Times article had a similar anecdote. "Elon would always say, 'Let them sue,' it was a constant refrain... It's all very short-term thinking," a former senior staffer reportedly said.

Many companies, both large and small, have done just that. But Liss-Riordan says some smaller companies can't afford to file individual cases. Because "not all creditors are going to have the means or the wherewithal to file their own case, we filed it as a class action to cover all of these vendors who haven't had their bills paid," Liss-Riordan said.

When we talked to Liss-Riordan in late June, the class action included just four companies. She told us that additional vendors had reached out to her, and two more firms later joined as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

"It unfortunately appears to be a pretty widespread issue that Twitter just has not been paying its bills," Liss-Riordan said. Class actions against large companies are usually structured to represent consumers rather than small businesses, but Liss-Riordan said she intends to make sure that Musk "can't get out of [paying bills] just based on the fact that not everyone is going to go out and get their own lawyer to bring a lawsuit."

Liss-Riordan also said she hasn't seen anything quite like Musk's refusal to pay bills in her career as an attorney. While it's not uncommon for companies heading toward bankruptcy to stop paying bills, Musk declared in February that he saved Twitter from needing to file for bankruptcy protection.

"Here we don't appear to be facing a bankruptcy situation, so it's rather unusual for a company that is solvent just to say, 'We're not going to pay our bills,'" Liss-Riordan said.

 

“Twitter admits” renegotiating contracts

There are common details running through most of the unpaid-bill lawsuits. Many vendors say Twitter did not dispute the invoices or the amounts owed, that Twitter approved the invoices shortly before Musk took over, and that Twitter refused to pay them after Musk became the owner. Vendors say the company did not explain its failure to pay, effectively forcing them to sue.

X seems to view existing contracts with vendors as renegotiable. In response to one vendor lawsuit's statement that "Twitter stopped paying rent on some of its offices and stopped paying several vendors whose services it was still using," Musk's company offered a more anodyne description of its bill-paying strategy: "Twitter admits it is working with some vendors and landlords to review existing contracts."

In response to the lawsuit's claim that "Twitter also cancelled many contracts and stopped paying people to whom it owes money," Twitter said it "admits it is working with some counter-parties to review contracts."

Boston College finance professor Edith Hotchkiss told Ars that Musk's strategy is hard to understand from the outside. "I suppose it could be that it is an attempt to renegotiate these outstanding liabilities. But that doesn't seem to make sense either, given the litigation costs," Hotchkiss said.

Musk said in mid-July that Twitter was still losing money because advertising revenue was down 50 percent. The company's US advertising revenue is down 60 percent, he said this week. Musk also saddled the company with a heavy debt load when he used $13 billion of debt to fund his $44 billion purchase of the company.

X owes an estimated $1.5 billion in annual interest payments. While it no longer has a market cap because it is a private firm, Fidelity recently valued the company at about $15 billion.

 

Class action
The first four class-action plaintiffs represented by Liss-Riordan were White Coat Captioning, YES Consulting, Cancomm LLC (doing business as Dialogue Inc.), and Dialogue Mèxico S.A. de C.V.

White Coat Captioning of Vermont "contracted with Twitter to provide professional real-time captioning services throughout 2022" and is owed $42,000, the lawsuit said. YES Consulting of California contracted with Twitter to provide leadership training for much of 2022 and is allegedly owed $49,000. The two Dialogue plaintiffs, based in Florida and Mexico, contracted with Twitter to provide public relations and communications services for all of 2022 and are allegedly owed $140,000.

An amended complaint on June 30 added two new plaintiffs: Autumn Communications of California and Business Training Works of Maryland. Autumn Communications provided public relations services and hasn't been paid $60,000, the lawsuit said. Business Training Works provided a "virtual writing skills training course" and is allegedly owed $30,000.

"Plaintiffs are concerned that Twitter has no intention of paying the amounts owed to them under their contracts and by law," the lawsuit said.

X filed a motion to dismiss two of the plaintiffs from the case, arguing that Cancomm LLC and Dialogue México entered contracts requiring claims to be litigated in England. Liss-Riordan's response argued that the forum selection clause is void because Twitter breached the contracts and that other "well-trodden exceptions" give the plaintiffs the right to sue in the US. The motion to dismiss the plaintiffs and the overall case is still pending.

 

Lawsuits stemming from Musk/Twitter merger
Several lawsuits are over bills that Twitter incurred during the months-long drama surrounding Musk's purchase of the company. Some bills were necessitated by Musk's unsolicited offer to buy Twitter and his subsequent attempt to break their merger contract. Twitter had to hire experts and lawyers when it sued Musk to force him to honor the deal.

 

A few cases settled
Innisfree M&A sued Twitter in a New York state court in February, alleging that the company owed $1.9 million for proxy solicitation services related to the special meeting of shareholders that resulted in approval of Musk's $54.20-per-share offer to buy the company.

Innisfree is apparently getting paid at least some of what it said it is owed. On April 20, the sides agreed to stay litigation, with a court filing saying that Innisfree and Twitter had "finalized a resolution of Plaintiff's claims." Innisfree agreed to dismiss the case if Twitter fulfilled the settlement requirements by August 17, the filing said. Innisfree dismissed the case on August 17 as scheduled.

Consulting firm Charles River Associates (CRA) sued Twitter in January, saying it wasn't paid $2.19 million for work it did on the lawsuit that forced Musk to complete his purchase of the company. CRA's work included "research and analysis underlying the expert opinions to be included in the expert rebuttal report," preparation of drafts of the report, "and other expert consulting and litigation support at the direction of Twitter's legal counsel," the lawsuit said.

The case in Suffolk County Superior Court in Boston was apparently settled as Charles River Associates voluntarily dismissed its lawsuit on March 30. That happened a few weeks after the parties asked the court for an extension to give them "additional time to continue discussions."

Analysis Group, a Boston-based consulting firm, sued Twitter on February 9 in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Analysis Group said it was hired in July 2022 "to support Twitter's highly publicized litigation against Elon Musk and related entities in the Delaware Chancery Court."

Twitter paid the consulting firm's invoices for work through September 30, "but, with Mr. Musk now in control, Twitter has refused to pay AG for the rest of the work performed," the lawsuit said. Twitter allegedly owed Analysis Group nearly $2.2 million. Analysis Group and Twitter settled in April 2023, and the case was dismissed.

Mediant Communications sued Twitter on January 6, 2023, in New York County Supreme Court, saying that it wasn't paid $566,000 for services related to the shareholder vote on the Musk purchase. Mediant provides proxy distribution and voting tabulation services to corporations. The lawsuit was discontinued by the plaintiff on January 31.

To Musk's chagrin, Twitter paid $90 million to law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz for work on the lawsuit that forced him to honor the merger contract. In July, Musk's X Corp. sued the law firm in an attempt to get the money back. The case is pending.

 

Unpaid-rent lawsuits
X has faced Lawsuits over unpaid rent in San Francisco, Oakland, Colorado, Boston, Atlanta, and the UK.

 

San Francisco and London headquarters
SRI Nine Market Square LLC sued Twitter in January, saying Musk's company stopped paying monthly rent of over $3 million at its US headquarters building in San Francisco. The deadline for Twitter to respond to the complaint was repeatedly extended while the sides tried to negotiate a resolution, but settlement talks apparently weren't successful.

Twitter filed its response to SRI Nine Market Square's complaint on August 9, asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed and saying that it paid rent for January and February. It's unclear from the filing whether Twitter paid rent after those months. The case is in San Francisco County Superior Court, and a trial is scheduled for May 2024.

Twitter also failed to pay rent of $136,000 at a different office building in San Francisco, according to a lawsuit filed by Columbia REIT-650 California LLC in late December. The case was dismissed at the request of the plaintiff in February.

Britain's Crown Estate, which manages property belonging to the monarchy, sued Twitter in January over unpaid rent at its London headquarters. The Crown Estate withdrew the lawsuit after Twitter finally paid rent, according to a Bloomberg report in May.

 

Colorado evictions
In Boulder, Colorado, a judge authorized law enforcement to evict Twitter from a 3401 Bluff Street office building in May due to a lawsuit filed by the building's owner. The company Lot 2 SBO LLC said it drew from a $968,000 letter of credit after Twitter stopped paying its rent and that Twitter did not resume rent payments or replenish the letter of credit as required.

The eviction was scheduled to move forward in late June, but X Corp. counter-sued Lot 2 SBO, arguing that it was a "wrongful eviction." X Corp. alleged that Lot 2 owes it $5.8 million for improvements that Twitter made to the property "according to specifications to which Defendant agreed in advance." X Corp's lawsuit against Lot 2 SBO was closed and consolidated with the existing case filed by Lot 2 SBO.

X Corp's countersuit said the eviction was scheduled to be completed on June 30, but it's unclear if it went forward. We contacted Lot 2 SBO's lawyers and will update this article if we get an answer.

A Boulder County District Court employee told Ars that legal paperwork mailed to Twitter at 3401 Bluff Street was returned to the court by the postal service on July 18 with a message saying, "vacant, unable to forward." Lot 2 SBO's case against Twitter is still pending in the district court.

At a different Boulder building, Twitter was reportedly evicted in December 2022 for failing to pay rent and was later sued by Avalanche Cleaning Company over $93,504 of allegedly unpaid cleaning bills. The cleaning company's case in Boulder County District Court is still pending.

More rent cases in Oakland, Boston, Atlanta

Twitter was sued by the owner of a building in Oakland on April 4. Landlord KRE 1330 Broadway Owner's lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court alleged that Twitter failed to pay five months of rent totaling more than $1.6 million.

KRE dropped its lawsuit in May. While a reason wasn't given, the San Francisco Business Times wrote that "the dismissal could signal Twitter's willingness to repay some of all of the back rent it owes."

Boston-based landlord SHIGO Center Plaza Owner LLC sued Twitter on February 22 in Suffolk Superior Court for $632,000 of allegedly unpaid rent. On July 7, SHIGO told the court that settlement negotiations had been productive and requested a delay. The plaintiff wrote, "monetary damages have been reduced since the outset of this litigation, although the parties have not yet resolved all outstanding amounts."

In a case filed by Atlanta-based landlord Jamestown Ponce City Market, L.P., Twitter agreed to vacate a portion of its office space and pay nearly $1 million in back rent. "A source with knowledge of the situation said Twitter still is a tenant in the building, but the Elon Musk-owned company agreed to give up part of its footprint to resolve the dispute," Bisnow Media reported on May 17.

Twitter also was sued by contractor Leapley Construction, which had a $10.8 million contract to renovate Twitter's offices at the Ponce City Market space in Atlanta. After the Musk takeover, Twitter "abruptly canceled the job, according to a lawsuit Leapley filed against Twitter in Gwinnett County Superior Court. Leapley claimed it had already spent roughly $3.4M in pre-construction costs for the renovation of the office," Bisnow reported.

The case was settled. "On May 15, Leapley filed a motion to dismiss its lawsuit against Twitter in Gwinnett County after reaching a settlement," the article said.

 

Consulting-firm lawsuits
Seattle-based consulting firm Point B sued Twitter on June 14 in US District Court for the Northern District of California, saying the company failed to pay $190,342.50 in fees. The lawsuit said Twitter hired Point B in April 2019 to help improve its tech services for work-from-home employees but hasn't paid the most recent bills.

"Twitter did not contest or challenge any of the invoices and has not provided any basis for its refusal and failure to perform its contractual obligations," Point B wrote in its complaint. X is fighting the lawsuit, and the case is pending.

JF Associates sued Twitter on May 26 in New York County Supreme Court over "Twitter's unjustified refusal to pay JF approximately $830,497.80 for fees and costs owed pursuant to a public relations services agreement" that had been in place since 2015.

"Prior to Musk's takeover of Twitter, the parties had never had any disputes as to the existence or validity of the Engagement Agreement or invoices," the New York-based company's lawsuit said.

JF's complaint noted the pattern of non-payment alleged in numerous lawsuits similar to its own. "Upon information and belief, since Elon Musk took over Twitter, Twitter has implemented a pattern and practice of failing to pay outstanding amounts owed, including rent, and threatening or encouraging unpaid vendors force payment by suit," it said.

Twitter denied JF's allegations in an August 2 filing, and the case is still pending.

 

Twitter offered no “reason for its failure to pay”

Global Data Strategy sued on May 10 in US District Court for the Northern District of California, saying Twitter owes $230,100. The Colorado-based data management consulting firm said it was hired by Twitter in January 2022 and received payment for its services until Musk bought the firm.

"During the approximately nine months during which Global Data Strategy worked with Twitter, Twitter never complained about Global Data Strategy's work, disputed an invoice, or—until the end of 2022—paid late," the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit observed that Musk's changes to moderation "alienate[d] the advertisers who accounted for the bulk of Twitter's revenues, throwing the company into instant financial crisis. On information and belief, Twitter responded with a campaign of extreme belt-tightening that amounted to requiring nearly everyone to whom it owes money to sue."

Global Data Strategy said Twitter's portal for vendors showed that it "approved the outstanding invoice," and that there is no indication of Twitter disputing the amount owed. The consulting firm repeatedly contacted Twitter about the unpaid bill but said that "Twitter has not paid it and has not offered any reason for its failure to pay."

Twitter filed an answer to the complaint in June, denying the allegations and claiming that Global Data Strategy "breached the operative written agreement it entered into with Twitter." The case is pending.

Nube Group, a market research company based in Puerto Rico, sued Twitter on March 1 in US District Court for the Northern District of California. Nube said it was hired in October 2018 and was always paid on time until Musk took over. The company sued over two months' worth of invoices totaling $287,830.

Twitter denied the allegations, and the case was dismissed at the request of the parties in May, possibly indicating that there was a settlement.

 

Event planners sued after canceled conference
Melior Productions sued Twitter on March 28 in San Francisco County Superior Court, saying it had a $402,406 deal to provide event planning and production services for the company's 2022 Chirp Conference in San Francisco. The conference was set for November 16 but was canceled two weeks beforehand, shortly after Musk took over, the lawsuit said.

"Twitter's late cancellation required Twitter to pay the total amount due on the contract less a 25 percent refund," Melior alleges. "Despite this plain and bargained-for language, Twitter did not pay. Instead, Twitter has taken the position that it can cancel its contract without consequence and without regard for the small businesses and individuals who already gave their time, energy, and resources to the company."

Twitter paid $67,542.63 but hasn't paid the outstanding balance of $234,261.87, the lawsuit said. Twitter responded in a court filing on June 1, offering a general denial of the allegations but no specific details to refute Melior's claims.

Twitter said it did nothing wrong and that Melior "has suffered no damage or injury as a direct or proximate result of Twitter's actions alleged in the Complaint." Twitter asked the court to rule in its favor and to force Melior to reimburse Twitter for attorney's fees and costs.

Melior dismissed its lawsuit on July 24, possibly indicating there was a settlement.

 

One case has trial scheduled for August 2024
Blueprint Studios Trends, a corporate events planning and production company, sued Twitter on February 17 in San Francisco County Superior Court. This case appears to be heading to a trial next year.

Like Melior, Blueprint says it had a deal with Twitter related to the Chirp conference that was canceled after Musk took over. The amount in dispute is $346,242.19, plus interest.

"Despite Blueprint's repeated demands to Twitter for payment, Twitter has breached its obligations under the [contract] by failing and refusing to pay," the lawsuit said.

Twitter answered with a general denial and asked to be awarded attorney's fees and costs. A court trial in Blueprint's case against Twitter is scheduled to begin on August 19, 2024.

 

Software vendor lawsuits
Writer, a San Francisco-based company that provides an AI-powered software-as-a-service platform, says Twitter signed up for two years of service at $113,856 per year. Twitter paid the first annual installment on time but failed to pay the second annual installment of $113,856, according to Writer's lawsuit filed on February 21 in San Francisco County Superior Court.

"Twitter acknowledges it owes Writer payment for the Second Installment Payment, and simply refuses to make that payment," the complaint said. Twitter answered the complaint in a filing that denied any wrongdoing and asked to be awarded attorney's fees and costs.

A court trial in Writer v. Twitter was scheduled for July 2024. But Writer dismissed its complaint on August 9, indicating that the sides may have reached a settlement.

Imply Data was among the first companies to sue the post-acquisition Twitter over unpaid bills. The software vendor's lawsuit in San Francisco County Superior Court was filed on December 13, about six weeks after the Musk buyout.

The complaint said Twitter failed to pay a $1,092,000 invoice and refused to make any future payments on a contract that lasted until September 2024, the lawsuit said. In addition to the first unpaid invoice, Imply said that Twitter would owe another $7 million over the term of the contract.

"Twitter has expressly, unequivocally, and absolutely repudiated and renounced the License Agreement by declaring that Twitter would not pay Imply," the lawsuit said.

Imply and Twitter later agreed to arbitration through the American Arbitration Association. In February, Imply's lawsuit against Twitter was stayed pending the resolution of arbitration.

 

Private jet company’s lawsuit
Private Jet Services Group, a New Hampshire company, alleged that "Twitter refuses to pay $197,725 for private air charter passenger transportation services that it booked and accepted" on October 26 and 27, 2022. The trips were taken by Twitter's then-Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Berland on the final days before Musk bought Twitter.

Twitter denied the jet company's claims, saying that the flight provider breached its contract by dispatching flights "without a statement of work and without approval" from any of Twitter's "designated representatives."

The lawsuit venue changed from a state court to a federal court and is pending in US District Court for the District of New Hampshire. Twitter is fighting the case and responded on June 14 with a general denial.

 

International office renovations
Australia-based Facilitate Corporation sued Twitter on June 29 in US District Court for the Northern District of California, saying that the company hadn't paid for work related to office renovations.

Facilitate was hired by Twitter in 2015 "to help build out and develop its office spaces in several non-US locations," specifically London, Dublin, Singapore, and Sydney. Facilitate and Twitter signed a new deal to continue the business relationship in March 2021, but Facilitate alleges that Twitter stopped paying invoices after Musk took over.

Facilitate said that Twitter owes $546,596.55 in Singapore dollars and $61,318.40 in Australian dollars. Twitter also owes 203,115.62 pounds for work in London and Dublin, the complaint said.

"Between early 2022 and early 2023, Facilitate provided services to Twitter in London and Dublin—primarily for sensor installation; Singapore—for a full office fit-out construction; and Australia—primarily for decommissioning an office and temporarily storing its contents," the lawsuit said.

Twitter responded to the complaint on August 21, denying the allegations.

 

Other unpaid-bill lawsuits
A Seattle-based company called the Institute for Corporate Productivity sued Twitter on June 29 in San Francisco County Superior Court, alleging that it hadn't made a payment of $49,185 due on March 13, 2023. The company said it provided "research, tools, practitioner forums, and expert counsel on human capital topics to Twitter's HR team." The case is pending.

Canary Marketing sued Twitter on January 6, 2023, in San Francisco County Superior Court. Canary said it had a contract with Twitter since June 2020 but that the company stopped paying after Musk took over. At the time the lawsuit was filed, Canary said that Twitter owed over $392,000.

Canary's case was dismissed on March 23, shortly after the parties reported that they were close to completing a deal for an out-of-court resolution.

 

“Vendors should not have to sue” to get paid
Liss-Riordan, the lawyer behind the class-action lawsuit, said she doesn't expect the case to present any complicated legal questions. When litigation moves into the discovery phase, "We want to try to get, first of all, clarity on who they owe payments to. I really don't see the legal issues here in this case being very complicated. It's just a question of getting these creditors identified," she said.

With "clients we've already spoken to, we've seen the correspondence [in which] Twitter had already approved the payments," she said. Even in cases where payments were approved, Twitter allegedly stopped paying after Musk became owner.

Liss-Riordan also represents former Twitter employees in several other cases against the company. One recent one alleges that Twitter failed to pay bonuses promised to current and former employees who stayed at the company after Musk's buyout.

Another lawsuit says Twitter refused to pay arbitration fees after it forced laid-off Twitter employees to use arbitration instead of the court system. Even Twitter's former CEO Parag Agrawal and two other ex-executives sued the company after Musk's takeover, saying they weren't reimbursed for over $1 million in expenses related to federal investigations and other legal matters.

"Vendors should not have to sue a company in order to get paid, the same as employees," Liss-Riordan said. "It makes me question frankly why anyone would want to do business with someone who doesn't pay their bills."

 

['stache 22143]

What a world we’ve built. “Free speech” is for racists and anti-semites but not for fact checkers.

[Francisco 2.0 32595]

 

 

 

 

[cactusflinthead 27627]

Just saw the news about killing the Ukrainian naval op.

He's such a fucking POS.

He's racking up a lot of bills to pay.

[Celery Man 21098]

"i'm not owned i'm not owned" i continue to insist as I slowly shrink and transform into a russian op

[Captainant 28539]

1 hour ago, 'stache said:

What a world we’ve built. “Free speech” is for racists and anti-semites but not for fact checkers.

That's always how this shit goes. The people most cantankerously clamoring for """free speech""" unfailingly use that freedom as a weapon to attack and restrict their out groups.

It's exactly the playbook being ran with LGBTQ shit and """religious freedom"""

[G650 14437]

1 hour ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

 

 

 

I legit lol'd. WTF

[wildcat09 29579]

He needs to have his security clearance revoked and SpaceX should be nationalized. 

[Clintonaldo 2618]

4 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

He needs to have his security clearance revoked and SpaceX should be nationalized. 

Seriously this 

[Smax 3800]

7 minutes ago, wildcat09 said:

He needs to have his security clearance revoked and SpaceX should be nationalized. 

 

 

He needs to be deported and all US assets seized

[wildcat09 29579]

Just now, Smax said:

 

 

He needs to be deported and all US assets seized

I'll allow it.

[Brisketexan 106900]

In case you STILL wondered whether Elon was anything but a pathetic troll:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1699556514879451614?s=46&t=3lBssidvp-0TMhVPm2OebA

He’s not a serious human being. He’s just a piece of shit.

In case you STILL wondered whether Elon was anything but a pathetic troll:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1699556514879451614?s=46&t=3lBssidvp-0TMhVPm2OebA

He’s not a serious human being. He’s just a piece of shit.

[Foosters 18280]

4 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

No one should rely on Elon for anything. He might turn off the services for any reason. Odds are he won’t turn off your Tesla because he doesn’t like what you said online but the possibility is non zero.

Agreed. But despite everyone's OUTRAGE at what he's doing, many here can't even be bothered to go somewhere else to get their news and memes. 

[Captain Ron 13133]

2 hours ago, Captainant said:

That's always how this shit goes. The people most cantankerously clamoring for """free speech""" unfailingly use that freedom as a weapon to attack and restrict their out groups.

It's exactly the playbook being ran with LGBTQ shit and """religious freedom"""

It was topic de jour this morning for Kara Swisher and her guest Naomi Klein (not to be confused with Naomi Wolf) today - they talked about this is what people have done through history, a group of people take power and then they claim to be the victims, blaming some other group.

[Brisketexan 106900]

In case you STILL wondered whether Elon was anything but a pathetic troll:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1699556514879451614?s=46&t=3lBssidvp-0TMhVPm2OebA

He’s not a serious human being. He’s just a piece of shit.

[Pam Cummings 9868]

So stop using the site you fuckin assholes.

[Brisketexan 106900]

In case you STILL wondered whether Elon was anything but a pathetic troll:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1699556514879451614?s=46&t=3lBssidvp-0TMhVPm2OebA

He’s not a serious human being. He’s just a piece of shit.

[Brisketexan 106900]

In case you STILL wondered whether Elon was anything but a pathetic troll:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1699556514879451614?s=46&t=3lBssidvp-0TMhVPm2OebA

He’s not a serious human being. He’s just a piece of shit.

Fucking Tapa.

In case you STILL wondered whether Elon was anything but a pathetic troll:

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1699556514879451614?s=46&t=3lBssidvp-0TMhVPm2OebA

He’s not a serious human being. He’s just a piece of shit.

Fucking Tapa.

[Captain Ron 13133]

1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

Fucking Tapa.
Fucking Tapa.

You can say that again.
And again.

And again.

And again.

 

[cactusflinthead 27627]

52 minutes ago, Pam Cummings said:

So stop using the site you fuckin assholes.

 

59 minutes ago, Foosters said:

Agreed. But despite everyone's OUTRAGE at what he's doing, many here can't even be bothered to go somewhere else to get their news and memes. 

Is Threads chronological now?

You have a good alternative?

I don't like having to dive into the muck for news, but until they turn the lights off or a good working alternative exists then it's once again into the pit.

Speaking of keeping the lights on.

A tenth? It's worth a tenth of what he paid?

(Roughly speaking. Ain't mathing it)

 

[Foosters 18280]

16 minutes ago, cactusflinthead said:

 

Is Threads chronological now?

You have a good alternative?

I don't like having to dive into the muck for news, but until they turn the lights off or a good working alternative exists then it's once again into the pit.

Speaking of keeping the lights on.

A tenth? It's worth a tenth of what he paid?

(Roughly speaking. Ain't mathing it)

 

I couldn't help but go to the anti-Semitic/pedophilic/racist website because the alternatives aren't convenient is a take.

TBH, its not so much using the site that bothers me. Its posters who bitch non-stop about the grave threat of the messages being amplified on twitter, but still use the product. 

Edit: I understand that the media's reliance on Twitter to push their stories is mostly to blame, and its left users without much of an alternative. If the larger media groups decided to stop using Twitter as their primary form of disseminating their product, the site would be rendered obsolete overnight. But, that would hurt the bottom line. So instead, you have *very serious* think pieces written in serious publications about the dangers of the rise of antisemitism, posted on twitter right next to a post by GastheJ3ws1488. Feels like I'm taking crazy pills.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Foosters

[cactusflinthead 27627]

That's the Internet. Vile and amazing. 

One or more of them will get it figured out. I'm not sure why Zuck has a problem with chronological order of feed, but you have to force FB to give you a proper timeline. And it lags the event. Where are we going to get reports from Ukraine? Tiktok? 

Yeah I can see a post from some nazi but it's going to be a screenshot. You can quote them without feeding the algorithm. If I open a thread I rarely if ever see full blown Nazis. Just the same casual racism I see in an texags political thread. Block party ahoy. 

There were nazis before Elon took over, however Jack did not quote them. 

As long as the Auschwitz Museum is sticking it out I think I can too.

[Patricio Swayze 17058]

 
 
He needs to be deported and all US assets seized

And please send all his fanboys with him.

 
 

[Beau Vine 55867]

6 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

"Elon doesn't pay rent," one member of Musk's transition team allegedly told Tracy Hawkins, one of the plaintiffs in the severance case. Another member of the transition team allegedly told ex-employee and plaintiff Joseph Killian that "Elon told me he would only pay rent over his dead body."

[Nice Guy Eddie 13731]

Are we witnessing the origin story of a Bond villain? Or have we progressed to that sentence being in the past tense?

[SydneyCarton 49504]

3 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Are we witnessing the origin story of a Bond villain? Or have we progressed to that sentence being in the past tense?

A bond Villain? For not paying his vendors? You're basically just watching Donald Trump. 

[Smax 3800]

2 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Are we witnessing the origin story of a Bond villain? Or have we progressed to that sentence being in the past tense?

 

I've been calling him a bond villain on here for the past year, the guy is suspect and is playing all sides

[chainsaw 10292]

Any truth to the rumors Musk intentionally prevented Ukrainian military defense operations?

[Brian Fantana 6866]

53 minutes ago, Smax said:

 

I've been calling him a bond villain on here for the past year, the guy is suspect and is playing all sides

He's not nearly intelligent enough to be a Bond villain. Le Chiffre would run circles around him.

[Smax 3800]

15 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

He's not nearly intelligent enough to be a Bond villain. Le Chiffre would run circles around him.

No doubt but doesn't that make it even scarier?

[CooterBrown 18288]

What are potential charges for interfering with Ukraine? There has to be something.

[Anastasis 23720]

6 hours ago, Foosters said:

Agreed. But despite everyone's OUTRAGE at what he's doing, many here can't even be bothered to go somewhere else to get their news and memes. 

Turn off the tweet embed function and this forum improves immediately. But the twitter crack heads here have a really hard time letting go of their dopamine hits, and push back on that hard. They need a brain damaging algorithm to replace the other before they are willing to let go. 

[Francisco 2.0 32595]

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by Francisco 2.0